What He Thinks of Me
by punketten
Summary: Rose does something stupid when she's drunk, but something good might still come of it...


Rose had never been drunk before, but there was no mistaking the sensation. It had come over her so suddenly! The room seemed to be spinning, and the floor wasn't staying in the same place long enough to regain her balance. She giggled at the realization that she was indeed drunk. Who would've thought? Suspecting that she wouldn't be able to stay on her feet much longer, Rose looked around the spinning Slytherin common room for a place to sit down. All the sofas and chairs were occupied, so she settled herself on the spiraling staircase that led to the boys' dormitories.

"How're you doing, Rosie?" Rose didn't even bother reprimanding Scorpius for using her nickname. She beemed up at him.

"I'm drunk," she said, and burst into a fit of giggles. Scorpius half sat, half fell into a sitting position next to her, a bit of firewhiskey spilling from the glass he was holding.

"Me too," he said, and they both laughed. Scorpius offered her a sip from his glass, and Rose scrunched up her face at the sensation of the fiery liquid running down her throat. "That is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Scorpius said, his voice still muffled with giggles.

"What is?"

"The face you just made."

A small part of Rose's brain was still clear enough to think _I would never have done this if I was sober._ But she still grabbed a hold of Scorpius's tie and pulled his face down for a sloppy, fervent snog. To her astonishment and delight, Scorpius threw himself into the kiss wholeheartedly, and before long wolf whistles and cries of "get a room!" echoed through the common room. Scorpius pulled his lips from Rose's, held out his hand for her to take, and led her up the spiraling staircase.

-o-

Later that night, Al realized he was about to fall asleep in the armchair he was sitting in. He looked around the common room. A couple was snogging on one of the sofas, and a few people were having quiet conversations in corners, but most people had gone to bed. Al came to the conclusion that he should probably go as well, and made his way up to the 6th year dormitory. He didn't make much of the fact that Scorpius' hangings were closed – that is, until he saw a piece of red and gold cloth at the edge of the bed. He bent down and picked it up. It was, as he had thought, a Gryffindor tie. He looked suspiciously at the green hangings and wondered vaguely how it was Scorpius got girls so easily, and whether he should stoop to asking for tips. Al, who was still a bit drunk, absently stuffed the tie in his pocket as he tried to remember if he'd seen Scorpius making eyes at anyone earlier in the evening. _Oh well_, he thought, _I'll find out in the morning._

-o-

Rose woke up with a blistering headache in the early hours of the morning. She opened her eyes gingerly, only to discover that there was nothing to see. The room was pitch black. Rose closed her eyes again and sighed. She didn't feel rested at all. Her dreams had been so weird – just a lot of people swimming in front of her eyes, disjointed voices and colours that swirled into weird shapes. She wondered if the dreams were a side effect from the alcohol. She was about to turn over and try to go back to sleep when she made the most terrifying discovery of her life. There was an _arm _around her shoulders. And then a part of her dream dislodged itself from the rest, and she realized that it wasn't a dream at all.

Rose Weasley, bookworm, know-it-all, prefect, secretly self conscious, not quite yet seventeen, had never done anything she was ashamed of. And then in one night, she had got properly smashed for the first time, kissed the boy she was secretly in love with for the first time, and had sex for the first time. Rose Weasley had slept with _Scorpius Malfoy_. And she could barely even remember it! Panic began to rise in her chest, and Rose sat up. The easiest thing to do in this situation was to run away. She began to search for her clothes and found many scattered around in the bed, but it was hard to distinguish what was what in the darkness. Finally she found her wand, and deciding she had no choice, uttered "_Lumos._" She almost jumped out of her skin at the sight of Scorpius, who was lying sprawled with his left arm sticking out where she had been lying moments before. Rose caught her breath. In the half light, his hair tousled and mouth slightly open, she had to concede that he looked more handsome than ever. And the fact that he was shirtless wasn't helping. Pulling herself together, Rose put on the rest of her clothes and sneaked out.

The castle was quiet. Rose had her shoes in her hands so that she could run without making any sound, and thankfully she made it all the way up to Gryffindor tower without meeting a soul. The Fat Lady opened at the password without waking up, and as Rose walked into the common room she saw the clock on the wall was 4:15 am. She probably hadn't been asleep for more than two hours.

When she finally got into her own bed, tiredness was taking over. The only thought in her head as she drifted off to sleep was _What will he _think _of me?_

-o-

Al woke up to find Scorpius already awake and dressed. He was sitting on his bed, looking... thoughtful? Al sat up and rubbed his eyes. Other than the two of them, the room was empty. The other three had probably already gone to breakfast.

"Hey," Al said, and Scorpius looked up. "What time is it?"

Scorpius looked at his watch. "Almost 11."

"Shit, better get a move on then." Breakfast ended at 11 on Sundays, so Al jumped up and dragged on the first clothes he could find. "Wait," he said suddenly remembering, "didn't you have a girl up here last night? Who was it?"

For a fleeting second Scorpius got the look of a deer caught in the headlights. Then he looked away and said "No, there was no one here. Why?" Al paused. Why had he thought Scorpius had company? He shrugged.

"Oh well. I was a bit drunk last night. It was a cool party, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, absolutely. Really cool." Scorpius gave a wan smile.

"Are you alright?" Al asked, looking at Scorpius suspiciously.

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"If you say so. Coming to breakfast?"

"Nah. I'm not hungry." At this he sat back in bed and picked up a book. Al knew when he wasn't wanted, and made his way to the Great Hall.

As usual, Al didn't sit at the Slytherin table, but scanned the Gryffindor one for his cousins and Laura. He saw them near the end and quickly walked over to them, sitting down opposite Roxanne and next to Laura.

"Did you have fun yesterday?" Laura asked, smiling.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool," Al answered, doing his best to ignore the familiar fluttering in his stomach at having that smile directed at him. He was about to return the question when Rose looked up from her paper. Al had to fight the urge to laugh. Instead he looked down and began buttering his slices of toast. Rose's hair was standing out in every direction, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days.

"Scorpius not with you?" she asked tentatively.

"No, he said he wasn't hungry. Actually, he was acting kind of weird, but..." Al trailed off. He had just realized that there was something in his pocket, and he knew exactly what it was. He pulled out the Gryffindor tie. "You don't happen to know who this be-" he started asking, but he didn't get further before Rose let out a strangled yelp of "That's mine!" and as good as threw herself over the table at Al, snatching the tie.

Rose knew the moment she had said it that she should have kept her mouth shut. Roxanne and Laura were looking at her with confused faces, and Al's eyes were wide. Rose let out a high-pitched giggle and put the tie down. "Nope, I guess I was mistaken," she said, "I lost one of mine last week, so I thought it must be, but I don't recognize this one." She giggled again and tried to cover her face with the Daily Prophet, but Al was having none of it.

"Oh no you don't," he said, ripping the paper out of her hands. "You're going to explain exactly what's going on, right now." Roxanne and Laura were both looking equally bewildered, their eyes moving between Al and Rose.

"Yes, what _is _going on?" Roxanne asked.

"Last night, I was just, you know, it was like, Scorpius was just showing me a book in your dorm, you know, I suppose I must have, uhm, dropped it." Rose could feel her face going red, and she could see no one was buying it. She wasn't even buying it herself.

"Oh, right," Al said sarcastically, "your tie just came loose and flew over your head all by itself."

"Rose!" Roxanne gasped as understanding dawned, "you didn't!"

"No!" Rose cried, "we were just, we didn't – nothing happened!" The last two words had come out a little shrilly, and Rose wished fervently that she could sink through the floor as heads along the table turned to look at her.

"That's not what I heard." Rose flinched at the sound of Lily's voice behind her. "Seems the rumours have gotten ahead of you, Rosie."

"Shut up, Lily," Rose hissed menacingly, but she ignored her.

"Because _I _heard from Louise," she continued, "that you were seen with your tongue down a certain snake's throat." Lily sounded absolutely gleeful, and for the life of her Rose couldn't understand why. Lily wasn't usually the gossiping kind.

"Fine," Rose said, standing up abruptly. "Fine." She snatched the tie up from the table. "Yes. I snogged Scorpius and it was stupid and I wish I hadn't. Now leave me alone." She walked away to the sound of Lily's giggles. It wasn't strictly true what she had said, she thought as she left the Great Hall. She didn't regret snogging Scorpius. It was the part _after_ she regretted. She had been a millisecond away from saying "shagged" instead of "snogged", and she felt relieved that no one knew the whole story. _Wouldn't that have given them something to talk about_.

-o-

"You could have told me," Al said. He was back in the dormitory, and Scorpius was still reading on his bed.

"Told you what?"

"About you and Rose."

"Oh." There was an awkward silence before Scorpius said, "Are you angry? I understand if you're angry."

Al didn't answer at first. Then he said, "No, I guess not."

"Good." Scorpius relaxed visibly. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't know how you'd react." He paused. "Are you sure you're not mad?"

"I'm not mad," Al said, "I'm just a bit, I don't know, put out. Surprised. I didn't know there was anything between you two."

Scorpius sighed and stroked his hair. "There wasn't. Not sure there is now, to be honest."

"How so?"

"Well, she... Wait, what exactly did she tell you?"

"Nothing, really. Lily had heard rumours that you guys snogged, and Rose confirmed it. Then she stormed off. She seemed a bit on edge about the whole thing, to be honest."

"Right," Scorpius said. "Well, she disappeared right after, so I'm a bit worried she might regret it." Al was silent. That was exactly what Rose had said, but that might not be entirely true, and Al didn't want to ruin Scorpius' hopes quite yet. If he had any..

"Do you like her?" Al asked. "And I don't mean in the way you liked Tess, or Caroline for that matter, because you never talked about anything but how fit they were." Scorpius gave a guilty laugh, before sitting up on the edge of the bed. "Scorpius!" Al laughed, "you're blushing!" Al tried to think if he had ever seen Scorpius blush before, but came up short.

"Shut it," Scorpius said with a smile. "And yes, I do like Rose."

Al grinned. "Maybe you should go tell her that."

-o-

Rose was hiding in the one place she was sure to be undisturbed – Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. _As good a place as any to come and have a good cry_, she thought, but now that she was here, the tears wouldn't come. Instead of sadness or anger filling her up, she felt like she was overflowing with a whole range of other emotions. Shame being the dominant one. Embarrassment a close second. So she sat there, alone in her cubicle, hugging her knees and sulking.

Rose didn't know who long she would have stayed if she hadn't been interrupted, but in what seemed like an impolitely short time, she heard the door open. She sat in complete silence, wondering who it could possibly be and if they were planning on staying long.

"Rose?" a voice echoed quietly through the room. "Are you in here?"

"What in the name of Merlin are _you _doing here?" Rose burst out before she remembered she was supposedly hiding from this very person.

"I, eh.. I just want to talk to you."

"No." Rose heard her own voice like it was coming from the mouth of a sulking child. And to be fair, that was exactly what she felt like. "Go away. This is a girl's bathroom, in case you haven't noticed."

There was a short silence. "Please, Rose. Just come out for two seconds."

"...Fine." Rose opened the door of her cubicle and went to sit against the wall, pointedly not looking at Scorpius. He walked over and sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"You didn't have to say that," Rose said, realizing only then that her words were true. "But thanks."

"Of course I have to say it!" Scorpius said, slightly confused. "I acted like.. Dammit. I have no idea what to say." He gave a short laugh. "So this is what that feels like."

Rose felt a reluctant smile pulling at her lips. Even in awkwardness Scorpius managed to be charming. "I'm not angry at you," she finally managed to say, "I'm angry at myself. I'm not the kind of girl who sleeps with people whilst completely smashed, and I don't want to be. I want dates and kisses and snogging by the fireside for at least a month before I even start thinking about it. And now it's gone. You only get to have your first time once, and I can barely even remember it."

After a lengthy silence that was only broken by the dripping from a broken tap, Scorpius said "I know what to say now." Rose looked at him questioningly, thinking that was a rather weird thing to say. Scorpius pushed himself away from the wall and crawled over so that he was sitting directly in front of her. "Yesterday," he began, "I acted like the Scorpius that disappeared months ago. I acted like the Scorpius who only ever cared about what girls looked like, the Scorpius who saw getting into bed with some random chick as the best possible ending to a party. I acted like the Scorpius who-"

"Talks about himself in the third person?" Rose interrupted, grinning mischievously.

"Shut up," Scorpius laughed, "you're ruining my big romantic speech."

"Romant-?"

"I _acted_," Scorpius said a little louder, cutting over her, "like the Scorpius who isn't madly in love with Rose Weasley." Rose let out a little squeak of surprise that made Scorpius grin like the Cheshire Cat. "_This _Scorpius," he said, leaning closer, "the one sitting in front of you, wants to take you on romantic dates, go on moonlit walks and watch the stars, snog in the Three Broomsticks so we make our friends uncomfortable, send cutesie love notes during History of Magic..." With every word, Scorpius was edging a little bit closer. Rose could now feel his breath on her face. "...and I want to kiss you whilst sitting in those way too comfortable armchairs by the fire that you guys have in the Gryffindor common room." With this, he leaned in the rest of the few millimeters separating them, and kissed Rose tenderly on the lips.

"I didn't know you were such a girl," Rose giggled when they broke apart.

"Hey!" Scorpius laughed, "It's your fault. You make me go all mushy." He kissed her again.

"I don't believe this," Rose whispered. Her whole body was warm and tingling, and she knew she was probably bright red.

"What's not to believe?" Scorpius asked, brushing a lock of Rose's curly hair away from her face.

"But you've never let any of this on!" Rose cried. "I had absolutely no idea you felt _anything _for me!"

"You're one to talk," Scorpius laughed. "I thought you despised me."

Rose blushed. "I wouldn't say _despised_. But I haven't always liked you as much as I do now, I'll admit."

Scorpius smirked. "And how much is that?"

Rose responded by kissing him. Then she whispered "You really are an arrogant git. But I might just be in love with you anyway."

* * *

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